While signing the EFF letter is a great place to start, those of us with extra free time should take the time to craft our own thoughts on the issue and send those in as well. Many copies of a similar letter have a strong effect, but original letters show that you _really_ care and will probably remember around voting season.
Past that, we should also, as the EFF states, tell our families and friends about the issue. Not many people care about this currently, because not many people know, and the information sources most people rely upon are more concerned with 5 minute wheather reports than reporting on people's rights being stripped away.
As much as this sucks for the people currently affected, I can't help but think of this as a good thing overall. It's only when Joe Schmoe starts to feel the fact that his fair use rights have been taken away by the DMCA that there will be enough outcry to repeal it.
Linux, isn't sexy. This, however, is the stuff those stupid segmants on the 10 o'clock news are made of.
They're fighting for no Government involvement. I think this is a mistake. The government should be involved, in terms of protecting fair use rights. There's at least one member of Congress that's proposing a bill to do just that. If alliances like this succeed, then compromises will be reached between the tech firms and the content industries...just like they were with the DVD, which btw is one of their featured "success stories". We all know how well DVDs protect fair use....
The biggest benefit I see to having it be open is history. We should establish an organization where people "check-in" the source of their commercially realesed product. That way, 20 years from now, when we desperately want to get at a document from said product, we might actually have a chance.
then again, by that point copyright will probably prevent us from looking at anything interesting...
-kscd
Thank you for your interest in Movielink. We want you to take part in the powerful Internet movie rental experience that Movielink delivers; however, you currently do not meet our minimum system requirements. You will need to adjust the following:
If I win the lottery, I'm going to open a library with every CD that I can think of in it. It's free, all I ask is that you return it in a day or two. That should be enough time to 'listen' to any CD. Or am I describing any college campus?
We're attempting to do just that here at Stanford. http://share.stanford.edu is a distributed library for students to swap each others music, movies and books.
you know, it was moderated as "funny" but I completely agree. I write short stories, and couldn't do without my IBM selectric 2 (typewriter circa 1976) for rough drafts, and my Mac SE for final ones. Sure I have a pismo powerbook. But I can't stand the keyboard. And the fact that it can do so much more distracts me. My typer types. My SE finalizes. I love them both.
>iMacs come with a quality 15" Sony monitor or a quality LCD.
Sorry, the iMacs don't come with a Sony monitor. Sony monitors are of the trinitron type, and the iMac'smonitor most certainly is not (one of the things that kept me from buying an imac for years....) -kscd
"how long before the major manufacturers of such hardware get together and sue organizations like the RIAA for everything they're worth, el class action style, because their consumers can't play CDs on the equipment?"
They never will. The problem is that they're no longer an independant company with the deep pockets to carry it through. The reason we have VCR's is because Sony wasn't in the MIAA back then and had money and conviction to fight it in court. This is no longer the case (they own Columbia...) That's one example...who else? GE/RCA? Sorry, they own a TV network and want to protect their content, no sense in weakening case law. I know that there are other manufacturers out there, but most of the big ones tend to be in bed with a media company in some way or another.
Do you really think that Microsoft will try and protect the consumers of the XBox against this? Hell no. They'll get a deal to use WMA or something like that, all locked down and proprietery...
Pay with a credit card. If they don't want to give you a refund, call the card company up and let them know to stop payment. This will cost the merchant about $20. Which means that for the most part, just saying that you will do this will cause them to give you the refund (and dirty looks).
So what's the catch here? Could it be that they're suddenly worried about anti-trust action? Were the two artists' unions involved actually that effective?
Heheh. I'm sure they're shaking after seeing what the DoJ did to Microsoft...
that most of the time, the commercials are more creative/funny than the show. I can't help but cringe whenever I hear canned laughter on friends...
-KSCD
"That way, you always have the latest, least buggy version of the software you use without having to shell out for a new copy, and the corporation that writes the software is motivated to eliminate bugs, rather than leave them in so they can sell you the new version. "
This is what happens today. They're always trying to sell you the "new version" no matter how well the present one suits your needs (I haven't needed a new Microsoft Word since 5.1 for the mac...oh wait a second I have, because they keep on changing the document structure...)
The whole issue here is TRUST. And commercial software has largely proven (there are exceptions) that you CAN'T trust them. The whole beauty of open source is that you can fix the problems you find along the way. That is if you're qualified, and not some kid that got a MSCE certfication. And even if you were, you could hire people to fix the problems, something that Microsoft's subscription model doesn't allow for.
-kscd
Microsoft, closed source...open your eyes!
it was called the Simon. It was developed by IBM and produced by Southwestern Bell. The biggest problem with it was the size, which was about that of a "grey" cell phone. The battery life was also wanting.
The article in Byte about it doesn't seem to be available online, though I still have a hardcopy....God, I miss the old Byte....
Do they actuually report this kind of loss on their finincial statements? I'm not sure what it's like in Korea, but I remember being really pissed off here (the US) when companies were claiming losses in the hundereds of millions over what Kevin Mitnick did, and then turning around and telling their shareholders that things were never better.
Does anyone know the laws behind this kind of thing? (either US or Korea)
Slashdot, the best source of legal information on the net!
I'm not sure it'll actually work, but a few benefits come to mind:
1) They take up less space than MP3's, matching one of Window's Media "selling" points(for personal use, at least).
2) Since there is no need to pay anyone to support this (as their is with mp3), it could be seen as a viable alternative to both mp3 and WM.
Then again, if the record industry keeps on killing fair use by polluting CDs, none of this will matter.
the government can't really save face on this one...not that they have much of one to save.
Scenario One: Indict him (pissing most of us off)
Scenario Two: let the 20-odd days pass, looking like a bunch of disorganized losers.
What they need to do is make an apology and let him go. Something along the lines of:
My fellow Americans, we are terribly sorry that something like this could happen, but most of the time we're just pawns that act on the whims of big business.
Will a few Congress people ever take this up and give it the national exposure it deserves?
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/07/nyregion/07DRU N. html get drunk, kill a few people, be released without paying a dime in bail...(if you're an officer of the law that is...)
Let's be careful with those dangerous programers that protect fair use...
I agree with most of your post, but the part on why consumers "chose" CDs isn't quite accurate. It seems more like the record companies were forcing them too.
Many record shops complained of the following practice: They would order 10 vinyl, 10 cassete, and 10 CD copies of say Nevermind . They would get ten of each, but when it was time to re-order, the record companies would mysteriously be out of the vinyl, and ask if they would like more CDs instead. Basically CD's were a lot more profitable, so they made a strong push for them.
Slashdot Mirror
While signing the EFF letter is a great place to start, those of us with extra free time should take the time to craft our own thoughts on the issue and send those in as well. Many copies of a similar letter have a strong effect, but original letters show that you _really_ care and will probably remember around voting season.
Past that, we should also, as the EFF states, tell our families and friends about the issue. Not many people care about this currently, because not many people know, and the information sources most people rely upon are more concerned with 5 minute wheather reports than reporting on people's rights being stripped away.
As much as this sucks for the people currently affected, I can't help but think of this as a good thing overall. It's only when Joe Schmoe starts to feel the fact that his fair use rights have been taken away by the DMCA that there will be enough outcry to repeal it.
Linux, isn't sexy. This, however, is the stuff those stupid segmants on the 10 o'clock news are made of.
They're fighting for no Government involvement. I think this is a mistake. The government should be involved, in terms of protecting fair use rights. There's at least one member of Congress that's proposing a bill to do just that. If alliances like this succeed, then compromises will be reached between the tech firms and the content industries...just like they were with the DVD, which btw is one of their featured "success stories". We all know how well DVDs protect fair use....
If i'm not mistaken, mitsubishi already did with their Diamondtron series....
Thing is, Kruschev actually had on both of his shoes when he did that...only use rage strategically, not emotionally.
The biggest benefit I see to having it be open is history. We should establish an organization where people "check-in" the source of their commercially realesed product. That way, 20 years from now, when we desperately want to get at a document from said product, we might actually have a chance.
then again, by that point copyright will probably prevent us from looking at anything interesting...
-kscd
There's also a big profile on Fischer in December's Atlantic Monthly:m
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/12/chun.ht
Thank you for your interest in Movielink. We want you to take part in the powerful Internet movie rental experience that Movielink delivers; however, you currently do not meet our minimum system requirements. You will need to adjust the following:
*
You Need Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP
would rather adjust to netflix than to Windows...
funny story about these cats...I got a call the other day, at about 8 am on a saturday morning.
He said, my name is Jack from Award Services, congrats, you won a trip.
I said: please remove me from your list.
He said: but I don't think you know that you just won a trip.
I said: leave me alone.
He said: but you don't understand, this is free.
I said: I understand. I said leave me alone. Are you calling me stupid?
He said: No, you just don't understand...
M: You think I'm stupid.
H:No...
M: OK, let me ask you a question, how did I win?
H: We randomly picked you from a DB of phone #'s.
M: Well, that's the DB I want you to take my name off.
H: You need to understand...
M: OK, I didn't want to be rude, but you need to understand that Award Services sounds like a BS company.
H: (all defensive) Oh yeah, what's the name of your company?
M: I'm a lawyer in private practice
H: (click)
It was beautiful...
I knew MS was bad at designing software, but it looks like they can't even be orginal at designing an ad campaign...
We're attempting to do just that here at Stanford. http://share.stanford.edu is a distributed library for students to swap each others music, movies and books.
you know, it was moderated as "funny" but I completely agree. I write short stories, and couldn't do without my IBM selectric 2 (typewriter circa 1976) for rough drafts, and my Mac SE for final ones. Sure I have a pismo powerbook. But I can't stand the keyboard. And the fact that it can do so much more distracts me. My typer types. My SE finalizes. I love them both.
>iMacs come with a quality 15" Sony monitor or a quality LCD.
Sorry, the iMacs don't come with a Sony monitor. Sony monitors are of the trinitron type, and the iMac'smonitor most certainly is not (one of the things that kept me from buying an imac for years....)
-kscd
"how long before the major manufacturers of such hardware get together and sue organizations like the RIAA for everything they're worth, el class action style, because their consumers can't play CDs on the equipment?"
They never will. The problem is that they're no longer an independant company with the deep pockets to carry it through. The reason we have VCR's is because Sony wasn't in the MIAA back then and had money and conviction to fight it in court. This is no longer the case (they own Columbia...) That's one example...who else? GE/RCA? Sorry, they own a TV network and want to protect their content, no sense in weakening case law. I know that there are other manufacturers out there, but most of the big ones tend to be in bed with a media company in some way or another.
Do you really think that Microsoft will try and protect the consumers of the XBox against this? Hell no. They'll get a deal to use WMA or something like that, all locked down and proprietery...
In short, we're fscked.
Pay with a credit card. If they don't want to give you a refund, call the card company up and let them know to stop payment. This will cost the merchant about $20. Which means that for the most part, just saying that you will do this will cause them to give you the refund (and dirty looks).
So what's the catch here? Could it be that they're suddenly worried about anti-trust action? Were the two artists' unions involved actually that effective?
Heheh. I'm sure they're shaking after seeing what the DoJ did to Microsoft...
-kscd
that most of the time, the commercials are more creative/funny than the show. I can't help but cringe whenever I hear canned laughter on friends...
-KSCD
"That way, you always have the latest, least buggy version of the software you use without having to shell out for a new copy, and the corporation that writes the software is motivated to eliminate bugs, rather than leave them in so they can sell you the new version. "
This is what happens today. They're always trying to sell you the "new version" no matter how well the present one suits your needs (I haven't needed a new Microsoft Word since 5.1 for the mac...oh wait a second I have, because they keep on changing the document structure...)
The whole issue here is TRUST. And commercial software has largely proven (there are exceptions) that you CAN'T trust them. The whole beauty of open source is that you can fix the problems you find along the way. That is if you're qualified, and not some kid that got a MSCE certfication. And even if you were, you could hire people to fix the problems, something that Microsoft's subscription model doesn't allow for.
-kscd
Microsoft, closed source...open your eyes!
it was called the Simon. It was developed by IBM and produced by Southwestern Bell. The biggest problem with it was the size, which was about that of a "grey" cell phone. The battery life was also wanting.
The article in Byte about it doesn't seem to be available online, though I still have a hardcopy....God, I miss the old Byte....
Do they actuually report this kind of loss on their finincial statements? I'm not sure what it's like in Korea, but I remember being really pissed off here (the US) when companies were claiming losses in the hundereds of millions over what Kevin Mitnick did, and then turning around and telling their shareholders that things were never better.
Does anyone know the laws behind this kind of thing? (either US or Korea)
Slashdot, the best source of legal information on the net!
I'm not sure it'll actually work, but a few benefits come to mind:
1) They take up less space than MP3's, matching one of Window's Media "selling" points(for personal use, at least).
2) Since there is no need to pay anyone to support this (as their is with mp3), it could be seen as a viable alternative to both mp3 and WM.
Then again, if the record industry keeps on killing fair use by polluting CDs, none of this will matter.
the government can't really save face on this one...not that they have much of one to save.
Scenario One: Indict him (pissing most of us off)
Scenario Two: let the 20-odd days pass, looking like a bunch of disorganized losers.
What they need to do is make an apology and let him go. Something along the lines of:
My fellow Americans, we are terribly sorry that something like this could happen, but most of the time we're just pawns that act on the whims of big business.
Will a few Congress people ever take this up and give it the national exposure it deserves?
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/07/nyregion/07DRU N. html get drunk, kill a few people, be released without paying a dime in bail...(if you're an officer of the law that is...)
Let's be careful with those dangerous programers that protect fair use...
Many record shops complained of the following practice: They would order 10 vinyl, 10 cassete, and 10 CD copies of say Nevermind . They would get ten of each, but when it was time to re-order, the record companies would mysteriously be out of the vinyl, and ask if they would like more CDs instead. Basically CD's were a lot more profitable, so they made a strong push for them.
-kscd